Chicago Screenwriter and ISA Fast Track Fellow Melissa Birks Unveils New Feature Film in Development

In this exclusive interview, SCREEN sits down with Melissa Birks, the Chicago screenwriter behind a gripping new thriller that reexamines a legendary historical tragedy. The narrative follows Catherine O’Leary as a crucial investigation witness who uncovers the Chicago Fire’s true culprit, forcing her into an agonizing choice: accept historical infamy or protect her family.

SCREEN: Tell us about your Midwest roots and how they impact/influence you as a writer?

MELISSA: I’m a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is located in the southwestern side of the state about an hour inland from Lake Michigan. I learned to write “Up North,” which is Michigander speak for pretty much anyplace north of, say, Cadillac. My family summered at an RV park on the Leelanau Peninsula. As a kid in the 1970s, “Up North” was idyllic — a fantasyland of water and sand, Petoskey stones, camp fires, and wooded trails, where my imagination was limited only when it was time for bed in the camper bunk. I’d write in a journal, often while settled on a picnic table. I distinctly recall writing a story about a stuffed kangaroo that my mom bought for me at one of those touristy gift shops that were so popular “Up North.” I also recall strolling along a gravel path at the park with my mom, who had read one of my efforts (possibly about the kangaroo) and offered gentle but sage advice: “Your stories need to have a point.” Mom is from Toledo, also in the Midwest, and I guess she influenced me with a Midwestern blend of honesty and grit. Point taken. My writing would have points going forward.

SCREEN: How has ISA boosted your career and/or your progress as a screenwriter?

MELISSA: My relationship with ISA began in 2015 when I was lucky to be selected as one of two “Fast Track” fellows. That was ISA’s first “Fast Track” fellowship, and my first time in Los Angeles. The fellowship lasted one week, but the experience gave me lasting ISA connections and influential training. I remember, for example, that the team strongly encouraged me to research the executives whom I would meet in LA before I boarded the plane. That advice sounds like a no-brainer, but if you’ve never met with an executive, or been to LA, you may not appreciate the value of being prepared for a conversation on their turf, about what matters to them. After the fellowship, ISA promoted the script that had been selected for the “Fast Track,” and a literary agent signed me for one year. I also consulted with Max Timm on different screenplays, all of which he helped me improve. When I moved to LA in 2019 for what turned out to be a five-year adventure, I attended ISA networking events and, in 2022, I was honored to be a guest on Shayna Weber’s “emerging screenwriters” podcast. Finally, over the years, I’ve frequently submitted to ISA gigs. I use those calls for submissions to fearlessly evaluate whether my project could meet an executive’s requirements — and if not, why not.

SCREEN: What will viewers connect with and/or what will resonate with them with your film?

MELISSA: Viewers will connect with “Mrs. O’Leary” because this screenplay tells new version of a 19th-century story with an alchemy of the historical record and my imagination. This screenplay has a compelling protagonist in Catherine O’Leary, a high-stakes inciting incident in the “Great Fire” of 1871, and a Victorian world with eerie parallels to our 21st-century one. In 1871, following the fire, people understandably wanted someone to blame, just as they would today. Catherine O’Leary was the perfect target: an Irish immigrant with little agency. She was relentlessly targeted in the 19th-century version of trolling, and she was compelled to testify before a city board in the 19th-century version of “government oversight.” Yes, the fire started in the O’Leary’s barn – but it didn’t start from her cow kicking over a lantern while she was milking it, as the urban legend tells us. In my version of events, Catherine O’Leary is an industrious milkmaid, funny and fierce but also with a flaw: She is quietly attracted to a man other than her husband, who seems on the surface to be one thing but turns out to be another. Viewers don’t need to be from Chicago and don’t need to know anything about Catherine O’Leary or the “Great Fire” to connect with this story of heartbreak, persistence, and betrayal.

SCREEN: What does this screenplay mean to you as a writer?

MELISSA: This screenplay tests my ability to engage audiences with a reimagined story from the annals of history. “Mrs. O’Leary” is not a documentary; it is historical fiction. I leveraged my research skills and command of screenwriting techniques to tell a new version of the “Great Fire.” I fictionalized characters and relationships. I conflated timelines and elided events. This screenplay means that I’m asking audiences to go along with me on the promise that, while “certain characters and events have been changed for dramatic purposes,” the story will pack an emotional punch.

SCREEN: Introduce us to your central character.

MELISSA: Catherine O’Leary was an industrious milkmaid who helped support her family on Chicago’s west side in the late 1800s. When we are introduced to her in my screenplay, she’s milking a cow. We quickly learn that she’s a tough businesswoman with a cutting wit. She’s devoted to her family, which includes her earnest husband, Patrick, and their five children. But she’s also attracted to Daniel “Peg Leg” Sullivan, the O’Leary’s neighbor across DeKoven Street who is a charismatic, mercurial charmer. A devout Catholic, she wouldn’t physically stray outside her marriage … but after she’s blamed for starting the “Great Fire” on Oct. 8, 1871, she finds an emotional ally in Peg Leg. While Patrick advises her to “lay low” to avoid the heat of public scrutiny, Peg Leg encourages her to clear her name. As she partners with Peg Leg to tell her side of the story, she becomes drawn dangerously close to him until she discovers a betrayal that’s worse than being targeted for starting the fire.

SCREEN: What’s the next step for this project? 

MELISSA: The next step is to secure interest from an executive, manager, or agent. I also have other “Mrs. O’Leary” IP based on my screenplay: I adapted the screenplay into a play and an audiobook. I collaborated with 12 actors to stage a table read of the play in December 2025, and the same actors read the audiobook earlier this year. The audiobook will be produced by September 1, and I am planning a release party at an Irish bistro in Chicago for Oct. 7 – one day before the 155th anniversary of the fire.

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